A Hearth's Warming Carol
by AGP1990
Summary: Yet another adaptation of the Dickens classic, this time set in the world of MLP.


It was Hearth's Warming Eve in Equestria, and whether they were caroling in the snow, having snowball fights, cooking the splendid repast for the following day, or just relaxing and watching pegasus hockey, everypony was merry and bright – all, that is, except for one elderly alicorn named Silver Ice. Inside his counting-house he worked his employee and niece, Twilight Sparkle, and her pet dragon, Spike, whose tail had been injured in a carriage accident three days prior, down to the bone.

Aside from what little of a fire Twilight and Spike had feebly crackling, there was absolute silence until a knock came at the door. Spike opened it, and there was a pink earth pony named Pinkie Pie. "Happy Hearth's Warming!" she shouted.

"What gives you any reason to be so joyful?" asked Silver Ice.

"Well, it is Hearth's Warming Eve," said Pinkie Pie, "so I brought you this wreath, AND TOMORROW WE'LL HAVE DELICIOUS GOODIES FOR EVERYPONY!"

"Bah, Humbug!" snarled Silver Ice with a sneer. "Happy Hearth's Warming! Good afternoon!"

So Pinkie Pie left, but not long thereafter a white unicorn, Rarity, a yellow pegasus, Fluttershy, and a light orange earth pony, Applejack, came around asking for him to give some money to the poor ponies in Equestria. Silver Ice said no. For the rest of the day it was business as usual. That is, of course, until 7:00, when the counting-house closed.

"Uncle Silver Ice," said Twilight Sparkle, "I would like tomorrow off, if it's alright with you."

"It's not alright!" yelled Silver Ice. "But tomorrow is Hearth's Warming, so I'll give you the day off. However, I want you back here the following day. Good evening, niece!"

"Thank you," said Twilight Sparkle. That night she had fun with her five friends and their families.

Meanwhile, Silver Ice went to the tavern for his meal of hay and oats, and read the Ponyville Times, and headed home to his house. But as he unlocked the door, the knocker showed the face of his long deceased partner, Derpy Hooves. As Silver Ice looked at this phenomenon, the knocker once again became the lion it should have been.

Slowly, nervously, Silver Ice used his unicorn magic to light his candle and made his ascent up the stairs. He felt as if he were being followed by a moonshadow; the shadow was actually that of Derpy. Silver Ice zipped up the stairs and hitched up every last lock on the door. Inside the room, Silver Ice went into his chair, shivering and cowering in fear.

In entered the ghost of Derpy, chained from top to bottom and more pale than the white of Silver Ice's own mane and beard. "Silver Ice!" she wailed. "Heed my words, for you have forged the chain I wear. In order to escape my fate, you will be visited by three spirits."

"Yeah, yeah," snapped Silver Ice. "I know, the Ghosts of Hearth's Warming Past, Present and Yet to Come. Like these people haven't read the story 1,001 darn ways."

"Believe you my words, Silver Ice, that without them," continued Derpy, "you will end up just like me." With that she vanished slowly, and soon after that Silver Ice, more exhausted than four oxen after plowing the field, fell asleep.

At midnight Silver Ice awoke to hear the chimes of the bell tower in Ponyville, Big Betty, strike the twelve chimes. However, he quickly fell asleep again, only to be awakened an hour later by a light glowing in his room. Silver Ice quickly opened his curtains.

The light emanated from a light blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and maroon eyes. "I," the pegasus said, "am the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Past – your past, to be exact."

"Who cares?" asked Silver Ice with a rather inquisitive yawn.

"For one, I most certainly do," replied the Spirit, "and so would the other two spirits foretold by the late Derpy Hooves. If you measured ponies by kindness and generosity, you would be no larger than a grain of sand on both scales."

"Exactly what of my past shall we see, Spirit?" asked Silver Ice, now rather nervous.

"If my calculations are correct," continued the Spirit, "when this baby hits 88 miles per hour… you're gonna see some serious stuff. Hang on!"

With that Silver Ice clung to the Spirit's tail, and away they flew… 50 mph, 60, 70… and in no time, the two reached 88 mph, transporting themselves back to Silver Ice's colthood. "Oh my word!" he cried. "I remember this place! This was my home when I was just a colt. There are my sisters, Twilight Velvet and Cadence. I do remember them so well."

"But you spent little time with your family then," said the Spirit. "Cadence married but had no children, and Twilight Velvet is the mother of your niece and employee, Twilight Sparkle." Forward they zoomed to when Silver Ice was still young, yet a stallion, at Bronze Hooves Brewery.

"My dear soul!" cried Silver Ice. "I was apprenticed here! And there was the love of my life, Beauty Belle!" In the corner sat the young Silver Ice, approaching a white unicorn. The present Silver Ice sighed, "I loved her so much…"

Forward again they went, this time by ten years. The Spirit pointed angrily at a desk of coins of various metals – particularly gold but also relatively large quantities of coins in silver, copper and platinum – and said, "This is what you came to love more."

In came Beauty Belle, the former love of his life. "Mr. Silver Ice, I've bought a lovely cottage for us in Manehattan. Have you made your decision yet?"

"As a matter of fact," said the younger Silver Ice, "I have! Your last payment was thirty minutes late, so I've foreclosed the mortgage!"

"After you broke Beauty Belle's heart," the spirit said, "she married another unicorn and bore two daughters, Rarity and Sweetie Belle; but she never uttered a single syllable to you again. How's that for Happily ever after?"

"I can't bear it anymore!" sobbed Silver Ice. "Take me home to Ponyville!"

"Not yet," said the Spirit. "We still have one sight on this Hollywood tour." With that they went to just before the passing of his partner, Derpy.

"Oh, 'ave you 'eard?" asked a female pegasus to a male unicorn.

"Oh, 'ow I've 'eard," replied the unicorn. "Derpy 'ooves is gravely ill, she is."

Then, about a minute later, there came the solemn tolling of bells as a casket carrying Derpy was carried through the streets. Past Silver Ice and present Silver Ice both yelled "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" in horrible imitation of James Earl Jones.

"Enough, Spirit!" cried Silver Ice. "I cannot bear it at all!"

"The past is the past," sighed the Spirit as it faded away, back in his room, "and you, Silver Ice, cannot change it."

Silver Ice could hardly sleep for some time. It was nearly 2:00 before he could again shut his eyes, but not for long. Almost immediately he awoke to light, for in his room there were plentiful foods of any kind that a pony could find appetizing. There were apples, berries, cherries, cakes of all sorts, and, in the center of the room, a giant pink earth pony with a curly rosy mane and sky blue eyes.

"I am the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Present," said the Spirit. "Come in, and know me better, stallion!"

In Silver Ice went, upon which he knelt before the giant pony, clothed in a red blouse with fresh white roses for its buttons and a green miniskirt adorned with mistletoe and holly. Around these was a large silver robe made of heather and silk. "Touch my robe," said the Spirit, and the two went off into Ponyville, the room and all its contents vanishing immediately.

There were ponies caroling in the street, others indoors cooking Hearth's Warming dinner, many getting ready for the day's activities, ponies at church, etc. The two went mainly, however, to the tree where Twilight Sparkle and Spike lived. With them were eight other ponies: her best friends and their siblings.

"Happy Hearth's Warming!" all but Spike shouted. His tail was still bandaged and he looked so gravely ill that his normally purple scales appeared lavender in hue and the green scales appeared a more pale chartreuse.

"What ails the dragon?" asked Silver Ice.

"Three days before Hearth's Warming Eve," said the Spirit, "Spike was injured in a carriage accident, and it broke the rear half of his tail. In the corner there is a vacant seat with a tail support. If these do not alter in the Future, he shall pass."

"He must live!" wailed Silver Ice.

"I am afraid that it can only be altered through your efforts," said the Spirit, growing older and more grey by the second as they passed through a dark, unpassed territory. Beneath the robe there hid a grey female pegasus with a brown mane and a grey male unicorn with a wretched black mane. The former the Spirit called Want, the latter Ignorance.

"Beware them both, for they are Pony's. The unicorn in particular has Doom written upon his brow. Shun them both, Silver Ice! Otherwise, Doom shall come to you!"

In the distance the bell struck a ghastly dozen, and the Spirit faded from sight, leaving Silver Ice one option, and only one – to resign his fate to the last Spirit of the three.

Behind Silver Ice there stood a cloaked figure. He did not know whether the final Spirit was alicorn or unicorn, for all he could see behind the cloak were but an orange horn and two hideous glowing blue eyes.

"Am I in the presence of the Ghost of Hearth's Warming Yet To Come?" asked Silver Ice.

The spirit said nought, but shook a solemn yes. Then it pointed to a portion of Ponyville where ponies left and right conversed, as they so often did, about the events of the day, and the state of affairs, etc. The pair went to a building where two finely dressed stallions, a unicorn and an earth pony, conversed.

"All I've heard," said the unicorn, "is that he's dead. Left nothing in his will."

"Well, I bet his funeral will be plenty cheap," replied the earth pony.

They passed by the counting-house of Silver Ice, but in his place there appeared a unicorn stallion and an earth pony mare busily and happily working, not caring about their lives. Then they approached a shabby place in Ponyville, where the possessions of Silver Ice were being pawned. "It can't be!" he cried. "My finest pipe! My bed curtains! My beloved oil painting of Lord Hoofington!"

Further into the uncharted areas of Ponyville they went, for soon they were in the cemetery. In a dark and grim corner there stood nine ponies, none of whom were smiling.

"Why, Spike?" sobbed a tear-streamed Twilight Sparkle. "Why must you leave me?" She placed the tail support by the tombstone, reading "HERE LIES SPIKE" in a grave font.

The true place where the pair went, however, was a large rectangular hole in the ground, slightly longer and wider than Silver Ice and about six feet deep. "Whose grave is this, Spirit?" a nervous Silver Ice asked.

The tombstone revealed five ominous words: "REQUIEM IN PAX SILVER ICE." "Why, it's your own, Silver Ice," replied the spirit, a pale orange unicorn whose mane alternated between red and yellow, "and you'll be THE RICHEST PONY IN THE CEMETERY!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" cried Silver Ice in his James Earl Jones voice, albeit more desperate as he entered a pit of flames and burning sulfur. "I'll change, Spirit! I'll change!"

With that the room faded back to that of Silver Ice, now wrestling with his sheets. He regained consciousness and realized that it was Hearth's Warming Day! The spirits had thawed his heart! He was a new alicorn! He rushed over to see Twilight Sparkle and her friends.

"Happy Hearth's Warming!" he shouted. "Niece, I have decided to make you the Vice-President of the counting-house – and my new partner!"

"Why, thank you, Uncle Silver Ice!" cheered Twilight Sparkle.

"God Bless us, everypony!" proclaimed Spike.


End file.
